Why are Bootcamps so Damn Expensive?

Thanks for sharing this, I would add a note that bootcamps in 2025 are struggling because the number of students is way down. I heard about a panic at one bootcamp when they had like a record low number of applications in a given week, and the same bootcamp had like basically no one show up to their weekly info session. Some costs can adjust with enrollment but fixed costs cannot (some can with layoffs and consolidating positions).

I can explain more but what part? Low enrollment across the industry?

All programs have seen much lower enrollment in 2024/2025. The only solid numbers I have are Launch School - which publishes cohort by cohort data and their cohorts dropped below 20 people at the end of last year. Codesmith has been downsizing for 2 years now. They mega expanded during the end of COVID to almost 50 cohorts a year because everyone Google 'best bootcamp' and chose the first one. Now that's not the case and they are down to like 10 or maybe less cohorts a year - which is still shockingly high. People might be dabbling with code but they aren't paying $22.5K for likely nothing. And as of late Codesmith is seeing fewer and fewer show up to those free learn to code sessions. So as others said, SWE bootcamps really ended in 2024 and this is the tail end.

I would guess half of bootcamps shut down already or paused their programs and suspect by the end of this year there will be only a handful of founder-led ones left that aren't aiming to scale. I think the larger companies are going to be completing their pivot to AI related stuff

Most of their staff are in eastern Europe and have a lower cost, and there is no office space, so in your calculation they have much more room to work with and survive.